Why Status Quo Ante and Obamaism are Not Enough

Beginning January 3, the Democrats have a choice: Do they act simply as anti-Trumps, seeking to reverse his policies and revert to status quo ante Obama- politics, or do they move toward something more transformational? If they are politically smart, they do the latter and build policies and a coalition more permanent. If they do the former they set themselves for failure and position themselves for setting up the conditions that led to their demise over the last generation. The challenge for Democrats is navigating this choice, and it is not clear they can successfully do it given the distinct interests within their party.

Democrats, especially in the US House, face complex challenges governing. In part, their agenda is determined by the lessons of 2016 and 2018 elections. Theory one is that Clinton and the Democrats lost in 2016 because they failed to take Trump seriously. Clinton was a weak candidate with a poor message and campaign strategy who ran on the politics of the status quo in an election whose geography came down to a handful of swing states. She and her party lost because critical voters, such as women, people of color, and those under the age of 30 stay home because Democrats assumed they would show up to vote, and they did not, while at the same time angry white men did.

Democrats won in 2018 because Trump was despised, especially by female voters in more affluent and better educated suburbs where Democrats ran candidates who worked…